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Business & Economy
India wins neem patent battle
What is India News Service,
Wednesday, 9 March 2005, 1800 hrs IST
India has won a 10-year-long battle at the European Patent Office against the grant of patent on use of neem as a fungicide, citing it as a traditional knowledge available with farmers and the scientific community.
The European Patent Office had originally granted the patent to the United States Department of Agriculture and multinational W R Grace in 1995, which was later revoked in 2000 after India appealed against the patent.
The multinational however went in for an appeal against the patent revocation, which has been rejected after India led by environmentalist Vandana Shiva presented further evidence to support that use of neem in varied forms is part of traditional Indian knowledge and not a novel product.
In addition, the documented evidences presented by India included research done by two scientists prior to 1995 on use of neem, known for its medicinal properties, for making several products like fungicide.
"This is a major victory for us as the award of patents could have been damaging as the US company had tried to enlarge the scope to include all neem end products," Shiva, who heads the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology,
said.
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